The cancer treatment over the last 18 months has been intensive and has, as a side effect, somewhat compromised his immune system and made the fight all the more challenging. While he has shown some measured improvement in recent days, this is clearly a major battle, as all who have been through it understand.

All the best to Mr. Murcer and his family. Hopefully we'll get to hear his voice in the broadcast booth as soon as possible.

Just talk to Brett Gardner. Because, Sunday afternoon, Gardner’s big-league dream came true when Scranton/Wilkes-Barre manager Dave Miley called him into his office and informed him that he had been called up to the team’s parent club, the New York Yankees.

“It really hasn’t set in yet,” Gardner said as his team traveled back from it’s game against Buffalo. “Absolutely, it’s a dream come true. Growing up as a little kid, you get older, and you realize how far away it is. It really hasn’t set in yet, but I think (Monday) when I get there it will definitely happen.”

It's amazing. The one day I have to fall asleep early to wake up early, this news breaks overnight.

I like this move. We haven't seen much from Justin Christian, but it's becoming clear as to why he's 28 and was in the Independent leagues.

Gardner, a center fielder by trade, is batting .287/.412/.429 with three home runs and 29 RBI for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. He has 61 walks and 34 stolen bases (eight caught stealings). He can step in right away and play left field, allowing Johnny Damon to DH with Hideki Matsui on the disabled list. Or, he can force Melky Cabrera to play better to keep his position, because while he has plays solid defense, .246/.312/.354 just isn't cutting it.

The corresponding move hasn't been announced yet (it's only 7:45), however I'd expect it to be Christian.

The Yankees, with this afternoon's 3-1 loss to the Mets, have concluded their 2008 Interleague schedule (until July 10's makeup game in Pittsburgh).

The Yankees finished this portion of the schedule with a record of 10-7, helping them get to six games over .500 as they swept Houston and San Diego.

They also lost one of their best pitchers, Chien-Ming Wang, in a freak baserunning injury. Whether or not you want to blame Interleague play for that (I do), it certainly didn't help matters.

After playing Texas for three games, the Yankees play Boston at home for four games and then Tampa Bay for two. This could give Yankees fans an idea of how their team stacks up against the frontrunners in the East at the moment.

“This is him getting right,” Girardi said. “He’s not on the D.L. now. This is earning his way back, just like the other 175 players or so in the minors.”

This is only good for Kennedy, who needs a slice of humble pie at this point. After going 1-0 with a 1.89 ERA last season, he is 0-3 with a 7.41 ERA in nine games this season before going on the disabled list with a lat injury.

With the rotation the way it is, Kennedy could come back in a couple of weeks and have a spot in the rotation if he continues to work hard and pitch up to his potential.

“I’m trying to say it humbly, but it doesn’t matter what I say, it’s going to come out cocky,” he said. “You just know. I woke up today and told my wife, I just have a feeling I’m going to make these guys look stupid.”

This "tough love" approach to Kennedy will only benefit him in the long run.

If you told me that the Yankees would take two of three at Shea Stadium with Sidney Ponson, Andy Pettitte and Darrell Rasner starting all three games, I would've signed up for that in a heartbeat. And that's exactly what happened.

Rasner wasn't awful, but the Yankees' righty-heavy lineup was dismal against Oliver Perez, who always seems to pitch well against the Yankees.

Bobby Abreu actually hits better against lefties than he does against righties (.316 vs. .272), so I would have started him instead of Justin Christian.

It was strange booing "Enter Sandman" when Billy Wagner came in. It was like bizarro world.

It didn't rain that much at the game, but it absolutely poured during the walk back to the car (through the Worlds Fair park and over the L.I.E.). Long story short, I was drenched.

This was my first Subway Series game, and it happened to be the last one at Shea. All in all, it was a fun game. Too bad the Yankees ended up on the wrong side.

Saturday, June 28, 2008

Andy Pettitte turned in his fourth straight excellent start, battling the weather and Johan Santana en route to the Yankees' 3-2 victory over the Mets.

Pettitte gave up two runs (two home runs), five hits and three walks over six innings, but the offense made that stand up against Santana. The Mets right-hander struck out eight, walked four and gave up three earned runs over six innings. Last night, both teams scored 15 runs. Today, they only combined for 11 hits and five runs.

Pettitte came back after a rain delay in the middle of the sixth inning and allowed a leadoff home run to David Wright, before closing out the inning. He was then done after 88 pitches.

In his last four starts, he is 4-0 with a 1.00 ERA in 27 innings. This was after allowing 10 earned runs to Kansas City on June 7.

After Pettitte left, Jose Veras, Kyle Farnsworth and Mariano Rivera pitched a scoreless inning each. Veras was the only one to allow a hit (one) and none of them walked a batter. Rivera recorded his 22nd save of the season in the process.

Farnsworth is never a given - and he gave up a hard-hit line drive to left that was snared by Johnny Damon - but he pitched pretty well today. His pitch to strike out Carlos Beltran to end the eighth inning was quite possibly the best pitch he's thrown all season.

Robinson Cano went 2-for-4 with an RBI to raise his average to .244. Derek Jeter's 15-game hitting streak was snapped with his 0-4 afternoon. However, he scored one of the Yankees' three runs with a walk in the fourth inning.

Darrell Rasner takes the hill tomorrow afternoon as the Yankees look to sweep the Mets in their stadium. Oliver Perez will counter.

David Robertson has been called up from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and will be with the team this afternoon, according to Chad Jennings. There is no word on who has been sent down yet.

In 33 innings (20 games) for Scranton this season, Robertson has given up nine runs (six earned for a 1.64 ERA) and has struck out 48 batters while walking 16. He began the season in Double-A Trenton and struck out 26 batters in 18 2/3 innings.

We've learned to take minor-league numbers with a grain of salt, but his strikeout total is intriguing. It appears that he can walk batters at times, so that could be a concern. But overall, he deserved the promotion and hopefully he can deliver.

Friday, June 27, 2008

Sir Sidney Ponson gave the Yankees six shutout innings after they got destroyed earlier this afternoon.

He loaded the bases twice (once with no outs) and obviously worked out of trouble. His control was an issue (four walks) but he also struck out four batters and allowed five hits.

Say what you want about Ponson, but it was a lot of fun watching him pump his fist and smiling after getting a sacrifice bunt down. He obviously won't always turn in starts like these, but if he can deliver quality starts, this could be a huge find for the team.(Photo by Michael Heiman/Getty Images)

If the Yankees want to make the playoffs this year, they will have to make at least one trade for pitching. With all of the help they need, that probably won't even be enough.

Is it worth it to mortgage the future to get the playoffs and lose in the first round again? Probably not. But with the payroll that the Yankees have, they shouldn't have to rely on pitchers like Dan Giese, Edwar Ramirez and Ross Ohlendorf to pitch against the Mets.

You know that triumvirate is great when Carlos Delgado goes 2-4 with six RBI (thus far).

I don't know about you guys, but I'm so excited to see Sidney Ponson start tonight. Sad thing is that he can pitch a terrible game and it wouldn't even be as bad as this afternoon's performance.

I'm glad a sell-out crowd got to see Chien-Ming Wang run the bases, though.

Thursday, June 26, 2008

The game has officially been called. At the time of the delay, the Yankees were leading 3-1. Derek Jeter, Bobby Abreu and Alex Rodriguez will all lose their RBI hits. This is especially hurtful to Rodriguez, as he has not had an RBI since June 19.

The game will be made up on July 10 at 7:05 p.m. This was a scheduled off-day for the Yankees. They are off on July 7, play two games against the Tampa Bay Rays at home and then had the 10th off before traveling to Toronto.

Mike Mussina threw 46 pitches tonight. While he probably won't be available tomorrow, I could see them using him in Darrell Rasner's turn (Sunday against Oliver Perez).

Dan Giese, tomorrow afternoon's starter, was still in Pittsburgh as last as 8:30 p.m., according to George King.

Giese was supposed to fly back to New York earlier tonight to get a good night's rest in preparation for the first game of the doubleheader. Instead, the Pittsburgh airport was closed because of severe thunderstorms.

YES is on their third Yankeeography and the tarp is still on the field.

Paul Maholm, Pittsburgh's starter tonight, has been involved in two rather large moments in recent Yankees' lore.

Last year, on June 9, he was on the mound when Roger Clemens made another of his numerous comebacks. Clemens and the Yankees won 9-3, and Maholm was shelled over 5 1/3 innings.

With that loss, Maholm fell to 2-9 on the season. He eventually finished 10-15 with an ERA a shade over 5 that year. Clemens, overall, was a disappointment and is now a disgraced former pitcher.

Maholm will also be remembered as the only pitcher to ever face Billy Crystal in an actual game. This came on March 13 of Spring Training this year. Crystal, batting leadoff, actually made contact, lining a ball foul just past first base. He eventually struck out and left to a standing ovation.

Tonight, Mike Mussina is going for his 11th victory of the season. That's a pretty big deal, I guess.

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Apparently Proctor was hiding an injury from Joe Torre and Co. and was going to be optioned to Triple-A Las Vegas before he confessed.

"Having a little history with Scott Proctor, knowing that the guy I was watching was not really what you've seen before and knowing that he would never acknowledge that anything was wrong, you can't just all of a sudden say there's something wrong. So we were going to option him," Torre said. "I just basically told him that he needs to work out what he needs to work out and get himself straightened out."

After some more prodding, Proctor came clean with Torre. An injured player cannot be optioned to the minors.

"You love him for his heart. He has a belly full of guts and all that stuff, but he doesn't always make the right choices," Torre said. "I know the timing sounds to some people like he's just doing that to keep from going to the minor leagues. But I know him better than that. He was even willing to go down to Vegas and pitch with the injury, which made no sense to me. It's all a Band-Aid."

In 33 games for the Dodgers this year, Proctor is 1-0 with a 6.82 ERA. He has struck out 36 batters while walking 22 in 31 2/3 innings. He recorded his first win on June 10 against the Padres. In his last 4 1/3 innings, he has given up 12 hits and 11 runs (eight earned) while walking seven and striking out five.

Congratulations go out to Joba Chamberlain, as he recorded his first victory as a starter tonight. I wasn't around to watch the game, so I'll just give his numbers as a starter (five starts, four no-decisions) thus far:

25 IP22 H7 R5 ER13 BB26 K1 HRA1.80 ERA

Not bad for someone who should still be in the bullpen, according to some. The walks have been an issue since the transition, but he only walked one batter in his 6 2/3 innings tonight. He also threw 2/3 of his 114 pitches for strikes tonight.

Derek Jeter had a three-hit game tonight, raising hit batting average to .286. Robinson Cano had his second straight three-hit game and is now over .240. Bobby Abreu, who had been mired in a slump, also recorded a three-hit game. Hopefully tonight gets all three of these players going.

According to George King, Johnny Damon's sore foot is still a source of concern.

"I hope not," Damon said when asked if the shelf was a possibility. "I don't know, but Sunday it was real bad. Toward the end of the game it wasn't good."

Damon, 34, first felt discomfort in the foot Sunday during batting practice, but with Hideki Matsui's left knee barking, Damon played through the 4-1 victory over the Reds at Yankee Stadium, going 0-for-4.

"I couldn't move," said Damon, who was third among AL batters with a .323 average, 10th in on-base percentage at .390, seventh in hitting with runners in scoring position at .351 and tops against right-handed pitchers with a .328 average prior to sitting out last night's 12-5 loss to the Pirates. "I had no chance swinging the bat or running out there at all."

Damon and Hideki Matsui (knee) are both out of the lineup for the second straight night.

Damon said he was going to test out his foot to see if he was good to go, but it's safe to assume that he's not good to go. It will be interesting to see if Damon or Matsui could be used as the designated hitter Friday afternoon at Yankee Stadium.

Through the first five innings tonight, Darrell Rasner has given up seven earned runs and 10 hits. Since going 3-0 in his first three starts, Rasner has not been the same pitcher. He is 1-4 (tonight pending) with a 6.00 ERA in his last six starts.

At a time when he's needed most, he's pitching extremely poorly. His last start was against Kansas City when he only gave up two runs over eight innings. He then gave up seven runs against Oakland and walked five batters in an 8-5 victory over San Diego.

Part of the blame has to be put on the offense tonight. Tom Gorzelanny has walked five batters at this point but has been able to wiggle out of trouble. Ironically enough, in the sixth inning, he hasn't walked a batter but has given up two runs thus far.

"He's (Robinson Cano) helped me in a lot of things," Cabrera said. "He helps a lot in batting, because he's a star who has all the qualities and many years in the league. I'm rising and want his help, because he has more experience than I do."

Cano is batting a dismal .227/.270/.325 and Cabrera, after a nice beginning to the season, is batting .254/.312/.371. Glad to see Cano's helping him hit.

Brian Cashman spoke to George King and said that Carl Pavano could possibly return before Phil Hughes.

"I haven't asked, but it's possible," GM Brian Cashman said last night. "Pavano should be ready by August and Hughes in August."

Considering Pavano, who is trying to rebound from last year's Tommy John surgery, is throwing curveballs off a mound and Hughes (fractured rib) isn't even on a mound, Pavano would be considered ahead of Hughes.

"The rehabs are different," Cashman said. "Phil Hughes will start throwing from flat ground, but it won't be as long (as Pavano's)."

Imagine that.

While I'm sure Pavano will find a way to delay this even further, I'd like to see him pitch. I've forgotten what he looks like.

Monday, June 23, 2008

Peter Abraham tells us that Ian Kennedy pitched a three-inning rehab start for the Gulf Coast League Yankees.

In three innings, he struck out seven and allowed one earned run and three hits over three innings.

Abraham suggests that Kennedy will make a few more rehab starts before he is considered as a New York option. While the numbers were good tonight, it was in the GCL. He could use more seasoning in Triple-A.

Farnsworth is still booed when the Yankee Stadium scoreboard announces that he is warming up and later enters the game. He is still booed when he gives up a two-out single.

When he had to leave the game due to injury, I believe I heard a mixed reaction. The boos were probably because they don't like him, and the cheer were probably because he was leaving the game with what could have very well been a crushing injury.

With the bullpen the way it is, the Yankees can't afford to lose anyone. The Yankees got lucky here, and hopefully Farnsworth will cut down on his home runs allowed total.

I used to wonder why Farnsworth's home/away splits were so eye-popping. Now I'm beginning to realize why.

Since giving up 10 earned runs against Kansas City earlier this month (in 6 2/3 innings), Andy Pettitte has won his next three starts. In those 21 innings, he has allowed only one earned run.

The victory prevented a sweep at the hands of the Cincinnati Reds and snapped the brief two-game losing streak.

Pettitte could have gone longer, but a rain delay cut his start short. He was relieved by Edwar Ramirez, who pitched a perfect inning. Kyle Farnsworth came in for the eighth and gave up a home run before leaving the game after trying to barehand a comebacker. It appeared as if he was cut on the hand.

Jason Giambi was the hitting star, going 3-3 with two RBI and a double. Jorge Posada and Bobby Abreu also had multi-hit games.

After an off-day tomorrow, the Yankees will begin a three-game series in Pittsburgh on Tuesday.

I wasn't home to watch the game, but from what I can tell, it wasn't pretty.

The Yankees fell to a pitcher making his Major League debut (typical), didn't score after loading the bases with no outs (typical) and were done in by a defensive blunder (typical).

That's two losses in a row after winning the previous seven in a row, for those scoring at home. Let's hope this isn't the start of another up and down stretch that swallowed this team whole during the first two months of the season.

The seven-game winning streak gave the Yankees some margin for error. But Andy Pettitte needs to pitch another solid game like he has his last two times out.

Props to Dan Giese. Even though he made a bad throw, he pitched better than anyone expected. He and Sidney Ponson will start the Friday doubleheader against the Mets. Should be interesting.

Friday, June 20, 2008

In a battle of leaders (Edinson Volquez leading the National League in ERA and Mike Mussina sharing the American League-lead in victories), ERA came out on top.

Volquez went into the game with a 1.64 ERA and it only went up 0.07 runs, as he gave up two earned runs over seven innings, striking out five and walking one.

Mussina received his fifth loss of the season, but pitched well enough to win, despite giving up 10 hits. He gave up four earned runs in eight innings, but three of those runs may not have scored had Johnny Damon not lost a line drive in the lights.

Edwin Encarnacion led off the fifth with a single. After a sacrifice bunt and a ground it, the Yankees elected to intentionally walk Jay Bruce to face Jolbert Cabrera. Bruce is a rookie and Cabrera was 2-2 at this point in the game. Cabrera eventually doubled down the line to score all three runners.

This gave the Reds a 4-1 lead, and they went on to win 4-2 to snap the Yankees' seven-game winning streak.

Hideki Matsui was in the lineup tonight after missing the previous two games with knee inflammation. He went 2-4 on the night.

The Yankees will look to rebound tomorrow afternoon. Dan Giese will start, replacing the injured Chien-Ming Wang. The Reds will counter with 22-year-old Daryl Thompson who is making his Major League debut.

Steven White, a Triple-A pitcher, has been removed from the 40-man roster, according to the Post's Joel Sherman. He passed through waivers and will remain with the team.

White has struggled this season, going 4-4 with a 6.61 ERA in 64 innings. He has split his time between the rotation and bullpen, and obviously hasn't been successful at either.

Sherman suggests that this frees up a spot for Sidney Ponson who is a candidate to start one of Friday's games against the Mets.

However, they also could have moved Phil Hughes and/or Chien-Ming Wang to the 60-day disabled list to free up spots for someone like David Robertson, who is absolutely taking the International League by storm. I have a feeling that a move involving Robertson will be made shortly.

Thursday, June 19, 2008

No, it wasn't at a Yankee game, and no, it wasn't on the fly. But I caught my first foul ball tonight and I was very happy about it.

I went to the Hudson Valley Renegades game (Class A affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays). They had a rain delay last night, so they told the people who went that they could get in free tonight if they showed a ticket stub.

My friend and I went and we were sitting on the first base side of home plate.

Around the sixth inning or so, there was a foul ball hit to my left. I wasn't really paying attention, but my friend was, and he ran over and grabbed the ball. It was pretty exciting because I had never been that close to a foul ball before. I almost caught a bat at a Yankee game, but that's a story for another day.

I was pretty bummed because I probably could've gotten the ball had I been paying attention.

However, my luck changed the next inning. There was a pop foul in front of my section. I stood up immediately, anticipating it landing in my hands. However, it wasn't hit hard enough and smacked the concrete 20 feet in front of me. The ball then bounced high in the air, flying right above me. I jumped, using every inch of my 5-10-ness to snag the ball in front of those sitting behind me.

It was an exciting moment, and it's something I'll always remember. Free baseballs have that kind of effect, I guess.

For the first four innings, the Yankees couldn't do anything against Padres' starter Josh Banks. They had runners at second and third with one out in the first inning but were unable to score.

They eventually fell behind 1-0 in the fourth, but that was until Melky Cabrera walked with one out in the fifth.

With Jose Molina at the plate, Cabrera stole second and third base before scoring on a sacrifice fly to center. The offense was stagnant up until that point, and they needed a boost. Manufacturing a run is the best way to provide a spark.

The Yankees would score again in the sixth. Derek Jeter led off with a single, stole second, took third on a ground out and scored on an Alex Rodriguez single.

That was all the Yankees would need. The bullpen shut down the Padres, winning 2-1 and finishing off the sweep.

Joba Chamberlain struck out a career-high nine batters in 5 2/3 innings, reaching exactly 100 pitches. With the Yankees scoring in the bottom of the sixth, Chamberlain did not figure in the decision, and is still searching for his first victory as a starter.

I would have let him finish the sixth. He struck out the first two batters in the inning and his velocity was not suffering at all. Four or five pitches wouldn't kill him. If a batter reached, then you could have taken him out.

The Yankees pitchers struck out the Padres 40 times in this series. They also outscored the Padres 18-6 in the three games.

The win streak now stands at seven. The Cincinnati Reds come to town for a three-game series that begins tomorrow night.

In a Sports Illustrated poll surveying 495 players, 10 percent of them voted Derek Jeter as the game's most overrated, according to the Daily News.

“I don’t want to hear about it,” Jeter told the Daily News before trying to help the Yankees extend their winning streak to seven games in Thursday's matinee. “I don’t want to hear about it. I don’t want to talk about it. All negative stuff I don’t want to talk about.”

Ironically, when SI asked MLB players, “Whom would you pick to build a team around?” in a separate survey last week, A-Rod ranked first and Jeter second.

I love Jeter, but I can't argue. He's a very nice player and a great leader, but do you think he'd get as much attention as he does now if he played for Kansas City or Toronto?

What's curious is that Alex Rodriguez garnered seven percent of the vote. Excuse me? Rodriguez won the MVP last year (the third of his career) and will likely chase after Barry Bonds' home run record someday. That sounds like 34.65 players are extremely jealous of Rodriguez and his contract.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

The Yankees were able to get to the reigning National League Cy Young Award winner en route to their sixth straight win.

Jake Peavy only lasted four innings and gave up four runs (three earned) while throwing 93 pitches. Meanwhile, Darrell Rasner struggled again but broke his personal four-game losing streak.

The Yankees right-hander walked five and gave up two runs in five innings. He was inefficient, throwing 96 pitches, but was able to even his season record at 4-4. The bullpen also left much to be desired, as Edwar Ramirez gave up two home runs and Kyle Farnsworth chipped in with a home run allowed. Mariano Rivera was able to restore order in the ninth inning to save the Yankees' 8-5 victory.

Alex Rodriguez continued to hit the ball hard, going 3-4 with a home run and two RBI. He has now homered in four straight games. In his last 111 at-bats, Rodriguez has 41 hits (.369) with 10 home runs and 30 RBI. For some perspective, Rodriguez has 14 home runs and 40 RBI on the season.

Johnny Damon had yet another three-hit game and Wilson Betemit somehow had three hits (two doubles). All of the Yankees' starters had at least one hit except for Jason Giambi. With the way he's been going lately, he can have a pass.

All of a sudden the Yankees are 39-33. Joba Chamberlain will go up against Josh Banks tomorrow afternoon, as the Yankees look for the sweep.(Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)

It's amazing how quiet Yankeeland is after an 8-0 victory in the middle of a five-game winning streak.

While there is much more to write about when the team is playing badly, it's nice to just sit back and not have to complain about everything. Hopefully Darrell Rasner can out-pitch Jake Peavy to continue this era of good feeling.

Solid victory tonight by the Yankees. They hit for power (three home runs) and pitched for power (14 strikeouts) en route to an 8-0 rout of the San Diego Padres. The Yankees have now won five games in a row and are a season-high five games over .500.

Andy Pettitte turned in his second straight solid start, pitching seven shutout innings while striking out nine. He has now given up one earned run over his last 15 innings.

Jason Giambi hit two home runs to add to his team-high total. He now has 17 on the season after hitting 14 all of last year. Alex Rodriguez homered in his third straight game and has been hot the last couple of weeks.

They'll do it again tomorrow night, as reigning Cy Young Award winner Jake Peavy will face Darrell Rasner.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Quite a game so far. Jason Giambi has been unbelievable, and maybe there really is something to this mustache business. Andy Pettitte looks like he's beginning his run of second-half dominance a little early.

By the way, Wade Boggs pulled the countdown lever and got a nice ovation.

Pregame concerns: I'll be headed to the Stadium shortly, so I just wanted to the Yankees' lineup up early. ... After giving up 10 earned runs on June 7, Posada shut down the A's on June 12, giving up one earned run and five hits over eight innings.

Waking up at 11:00 this morning (I'm a college student home for the summer, give me a break), I found out that Mets manager Willie Randolph was fired, after a win, at 3:11 a.m.

Omar Minaya had plenty of chances to fire Randolph, and we all knew it was inevitable, but to have him (as well as two of his coaches who were also fired) fly out to California for the fourth time this season and to fire him after a victory is absolutely ridiculous.

This is a cowardly move by Minaya. He tried to escape the late night newspapers, but he'll only receive more criticism for this. You must feel pretty good if you're in Minaya's shoes. He brought all of these players to New York, and yet he's escaping all of the blame.

Not anymore. He now looks terrible by this, and if the Mets cannot make the playoffs this season, he'll be gone too.

Injured reliever J.B. Cox began throwing Monday, according to Chad Jennings who received an email from Nardi Contreras.

He is recovering from a tired shoulder and was placed on the seven-day disabled list last week.

Once he returns, he could be an option for the Major League bullpen.

Jennings also notes that Francisco Cervelli returned to Class-A Tampa Monday. You may remember that Cervelli was injured in a collision at home plate during Spring Training, setting off a brawl later on in March.

Monday, June 16, 2008

Hank Steinbrenner spoke to Ben Walker, an AP reporter, and told him how he felt about the National League's rules possibly ending Chien-Ming Wang's season:

“My only message is simple. The National League needs to join the 21st century,” Steinbrenner said in Tampa, Fla. “They need to grow up and join the 21st century.

“Am I (mad) about it? Yes,” Steinbrenner added. “I’ve got my pitchers running the bases, and one of them gets hurt. He’s going to be out. I don’t like that, and it’s about time they address it. That was a rule from the 1800s.”

“This is always a concern of American League teams when their pitchers have to run the bases and they’re not used to doing it,” Steinbrenner said. “It’s not just us. It’s everybody. It probably should be a concern for National League owners, general managers and managers when their pitchers run the bases. Pitchers have enough to do without having to do that.”

Part of this could be out of frustration, but he is right. If the American League didn't have the DH rule, this wouldn't be an issue. But they do, and their pitchers aren't used to doing batting activities.

Pitchers should be able to run around the bases without injury, but they don't have to in the American League.

Chien-Ming Wang has a mid-foot sprain of the Lisfranc ligament and a partial tear of a tendon in his right foot, according to Peter Abraham. Wang will be on crutches and his foot will be in a protective boot for at least six weeks. Add on rehab time and we're looking at at least 10 weeks.

This is the same injury that Brian Bruney suffered earlier this season. The injury is usually more of a football injury, so it's strange to see two Yankees pitchers stricken with it.

The Yankees will not need a starter until Saturday. If they're going to make a trade, I can see them waiting for a bit.

10 weeks from today is Aug. 25, and there's absolutely no guarantee he'll be pitching-ready by then.

This is rough. But at least the Astros sold out three straight games because the Yankees came to Houston for the first time.

The amateur doctors are out in full force tonight (and early this morning).

According to Tyler Kepner of the Times, Chien-Ming Wang told teammates that he felt a pop in his foot, almost certainly meaning ligament damage that could the right-hander's season in jeopardy.

The injury is to the top of Wang’s foot, the same general area that reliever Brian Bruney injured when he tripped while covering first base in April. Bruney was found to have a Lisfranc injury and is expected to miss a minimum of three months.

Wang has symptoms of the same injury, including swelling and the inability to bear weight on the foot; he left Minute Maid Park on crutches, in a soft cast. Bruney’s injury was in the middle of the foot, and Wang’s is believed to be in the webbing of his toes, between his big toe and second toe.

“I feel sore,” Wang said in a statement to the Yankees’ media relations director, Jason Zillo. “The doctor says I have to go to get an M.R.I. tomorrow. Of course I’m disappointed.”

With the off-day, we may not hear anything from the team regarding Wang's MRI until Tuesday.

Depending on how severe the injury is, it'll be interesting to see how the Yankees react. Wang will at least miss his next start. People are suggesting a trade for C.C. Sabathia (I don't see that happening). There will certainly be a call-up from the minors (Ian Kennedy, Jeff Karstens and Kei Igawa are the more Major League-ready). Dan Giese could possibly make a spot start or two.

This injury couldn't have come at a worse time. Wang was starting to rebound from a rough couple of week and the Yankees have finally gotten over their fear of getting two games over .500. All we can do now is hope the injury isn't a severe as Kepner suggests it is.

I've always enjoyed Interleague Play for some reason. I've enjoyed watching the Yankees travel to new places. I enjoyed watched new faces play the Yankees for a few days.

Never again.

Subway Series? It's bored me since 2000.

Yankees/Pirates? This isn't 1960.

Yankees/Brewers? They should boycott them for leaving the American League.

Yankees/Dodgers? They left New York, therefore they hate America.

The Yankees, as well as every other American League team, should not be put at a disadvantage during the regular season. Their pitchers aren't used to batting and running the bases like the National League pitchers are. They shouldn't have to change their routines and training schedules to take batting practice while they're trying to prepare to face new hitters.

Enough is enough. They Yankees face the Mets as much as they face some of their other American League opponents. Is that fair? Didn't think so.

Mike Mussina got off to an inauspicious start, to borrow a line from Michael Kay. After the first inning, he was trailing 3-0. This could have been worse if the Astros didn't record another out on the basepaths in the inning.

However, he was able to limit the damage to only that and eventually turned in the definition of a quality start (three runs in six innings). He also struck out four batters.

He is now 10-4 on the season, one year removed from winning 11 games and not recording his 10th win until Sept. 18.

Simply remarkable.

The Yankees have now won three straight and eight of their last 11 to reach their high point of the season thus far (three games above .500 at 36-33).

Other positives: Melky Cabrera, who had one hit in his last 21 at-bats, went 2-2 with three walks and two RBI tonight. Robinson Cano had a pinch-hit RBI single to give the Yankees an insurance run. Kyle Farnsworth pitched a scoreless inning. By the way, he has a 3.11 ERA on the road, compared to a 5.14 ERA at home. Just some food for thought.

Chien-Ming Wang and Roy Oswalt will square off in a Father's Day matinee as the Yankees look for a sweep.(AP Photo/Pat Sullivan)